Samsung Electronics Merged with VIV Labs... "Enhancing Bixby Development Efficiency"

ViveLabs

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunjin Jung] Samsung Electronics has merged Viv Labs, which led the development of the AI voice assistant Bixby. This decision comes about five years after acquiring Viv Labs, a Silicon Valley startup, and is seen as a move to develop Bixby technology more efficiently.

According to industry sources on the 11th, Samsung Electronics confirmed that it merged Viv Labs into Samsung Research America (SRA) last March. Viv Labs, founded in 2012 by developers of Apple's voice recognition service Siri, was acquired by Samsung Electronics in October 2016 to build its AI platform. The acquisition price was reported to be 240 billion KRW. At the time of acquisition, Samsung Electronics stated that "Viv Labs will closely collaborate with Samsung Electronics' wireless business division and will be independently operated by the current management," and later played a leading role in first integrating the AI assistant Bixby into the Galaxy S8 in 2018.

A Samsung Electronics official explained, "As Bixby is being developed with deeper integration into Galaxy devices, we merged Viv Labs to integrate existing personnel and improve development efficiency." Prior to this merger, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Viv Labs, left Samsung Electronics last year, and Larry Heck, another co-founder, is currently reported to be handling Bixby-related tasks at Samsung Electronics' U.S. branch.

Samsung Electronics is expected to strengthen its AI voice assistant services following the Viv Labs merger. Some speculated that a new virtual assistant called 'Sam' would replace Bixby, but Samsung clarified that Sam is merely a 'virtual trainer character.' Since AI voice assistants including Bixby are linked with TVs, home appliances, and more, Samsung is anticipated to seek ways to enhance Bixby technology to foster it as an AI platform. Recently, Samsung Electronics has been strengthening connections with Bixby while launching electronic products such as monitors and vacuum cleaners.

However, Bixby still faces challenges in expanding its market share in the smart speaker market compared to Apple’s Alexa and Google Assistant. According to market research firm Statista, as of 2018, Apple Siri held the largest share at 45.6%, followed by Google Assistant at 29%, Amazon Alexa at 13%, and Samsung Bixby at 6%. Since 2019, Samsung Electronics has allowed not only Bixby but also Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa to control TVs and home appliances.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.